Monthly Archives: January 2021

Artificial flowers

Artificial flowers have invaded my home ever since I bought artificial things for my Christmas decorations. The first small step was when I bought artificial poinsettia last year. I was very happy with my purchase, and when you have bought something from a specific category on Amazon, they send suggestions about related items.

It led to purchasing of several artificial flowers of different kinds. I bought flowers to create a flower bouquet, and I also bought a complete flower bouquet. Several other artificial plants have made their way to my windows sills. The flowers for one of the bouquets were missing some greenery. That made me go through the greenery I bought for my Christmas decorations. I had bought some that, in my opinion, were too light green for Christmas decorations, but they were perfect for the bouquet (see before and after below).

The last flowers I have ordered are heralds of spring. I'm talking about tulips. First, I wanted to buy them as a bouquet, but the two-colored tulips I wanted, was out of stock. Instead, I chose them as a kind of pot flower (see the picture below). I have not regretted any of my purchases, and I might buy more so that I can switch between different flowers.

Flower bouquet without greenery
Bouquet without extra greenery
Flower bouquet with greenery
Bouquet with extra greenery
Tulips
Tulips created as pot flowers

New towels

My towels need replacing, and I have been very satisfied with them. I bought them at Amazon a long time ago, so I, naturally, went there to look for new ones. Of course, they don't make my towels anymore, so I started to look for others. I don't want solid color towels because I think they are too boring. Instead, I looked for multicolor towels.

It turned out that the company where I bought my Christmas towels also make a lot of other towels, so I started to look around. In a relatively short time, I found some towels that I liked. Since I was ordering from the company again, I also bought the Christmas towels that I want for next Christmas. You can see the towels in the pictures below.

I'm very happy with the quality of these towels. They are soft, absorbent, and look stunning.

Christmas hand towels
Hand towels

Chair repair

The footstool on my chair stopped working in the days up to Christmas. A couple of days later, I was eating at the kitchen table when a loud bang sounded. After a thorough search, I found that one motor had left its suspension. Again I contacted the store where I bought the chair, but nothing happened for two days. Therefore I decided to contact the company that repaired the chair the last time.

A couple of pictures and an hour later, the company had created a warranty case. Because of the holidays, they were not able to get the spare parts before Christmas. When they called at the beginning of last week, I was expecting an estimate of when they could repair the chair. To my surprise, they already had the spare parts and wanted to know when they could come by and fix the chair. Since I work from home every day at the moment, we agreed that they should come the next day.

The motor was changed, which also solved the problem with the footstool. The repairman had just left when I saw some deep scratches on my floor. I called the company, and the repairman returned and was very sorry. Currently, the company's insurance company has created a case, and I have to get two offers on what a repair of the floor will cost.

I hope that it can be fixed relatively easily, so I don't have to move the furniture out of the living room.

Scratches on the floor
One of two places with scratches. It doesn't look nice.

Wire stripper

I didn't know a tool like this existed. Maybe it's not weird since I'm no electrician, and I don't know anyone who is. As I've mentioned earlier, I've bought some Philips Hue lamps, and I have more lights on my wishlist. Therefore my dad suggested that I should buy a tool that could strip the wire. My parents also want Philips Hue lights, and with a wire stripper, the work is a lot easier.

My dad and I started hunting for a wire stripper, but it's not easy to know what to look for when you don't have any experience in the area. We searched the internet, including Amazon, and spend some time reading reviews.

We ended up buying a wire stripper from Knipex, which is automatic. That is, you put the wire in the 'mouth' of the wire stripper and squeeze - and the insulation is gone. I've tested it on some wire, and it works. I look forward to using it next time I have to put up a light.

Wire stripper

Happy New Year 2021

I started last year rather dramatically by getting hospitalized. I was both in the intensive care unit and the non-intensive care unit, and therefore I don't need to try that again :-) In hindsight, it was a scary episode but, luckily, everything turned out okay.

Half of the year was affected by the incident as it took some time to get back to normal. I fought hard to get back to playing music again because I had an arrangement with the big band at the end of April and another with 'wienerorkesteret' at the beginning of May. I came very close to quit playing. It was exhausting to start playing again because I had to fight on many fronts simultaneously. Naturally, I had no embouchure, and the ability to blow was almost gone. At the same time, my hands were trembling so much that I didn't dare practice playing the flute because I was afraid of dropping it. The coordination between hand and fingers was difficult, and my brain had difficulty reading the sheet music, follow the play-along music and play and the same time. My brain was also getting tired very fast. It was hard.

The Corona epidemic, being told to work from, and the sunny weather in the middle of March and forward were my salvation. I didn't feel guilty for not going to work (physical attendance), and I used the time saved on commuting for long walks. It did wonders for my physic and mood. Also, I succeeded in being ready for the two arrangements at the end of April/beginning of May, but they were, of course, canceled because of the epidemic.

I primarily used the second half of 2020 to buy lamps. I've never used so much money on lighting, and I've never been more satisfied with the result. Philips Hue creates products that fit my needs perfectly.

So, what does 2021 bring? I don't know. Primarily I want to play music. Of course, I hope that a couple of musical arrangements will be possible. One last thing that is high on my wishlist is the possibility of a mini-vacation in Germany. It doesn't have to be for a long time, but I miss all the groceries I can buy in Germany but not in Denmark :-)

I'm still playing with the thought of creating a homepage dedicated to reviewing play-along sheet music. I'm considering using less time on this homepage and use the time saved on the new homepage.

Lastly, I want to wish everyone a happy new year.

Fireworks